Transfer Sabharwal case outside State: Jamuna

LEADER OF Opposition Jamuna Devi on Tuesday said in a court here that all the cases pertaining to Prof H S Sabharwal?s death should be transferred to any non-BJP-ruled state to prevent any influence on the prosecution of the accused.

LEADER OF Opposition Jamuna Devi on Tuesday said in a court here that all the cases pertaining to Prof H S Sabharwal’s death should be transferred to any non-BJP-ruled state to prevent any influence on the prosecution of the accused.

She appeared before the court as a witness in connection with a petition seeking registration of a case against Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan for his reported statement terming Prof Sabharwal’s death as an accident and not murder.

Himanshu Sabharwal, son of the deceased Prof Sabharwal had filed a petition at the court of Judicial Magistrate Vidhi Saxena that by terming the incident as not being murder even before the completion of investigation, the CM had tried to influence the investigation process which amounts to an offence under Section 201 and 203 of the IPC.

Those accused of killing the professor during student union polls at Madhav College here on August 26 were workers of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the BJP, and all cases related to the murder should be transferred to a state where the party was not in power, she said.

By making this statement, Chouhan was trying to shelter the accused by misleading the probe, she claimed before the judge, who also recorded the statements of two journalists and some Congress leaders.

Jamuna Devi wrote a letter to Governor in this matter against Chouhan’s statement. She produced video copy of CM’s statement to the press and newspaper clippings.

Soon after her statement to the court, Jamuna Devi told reporters that as the culprits were from the ABVP, the CM had “hatched a conspiracy to save them by directing the investigating agency to proceed as the case was not pre-planned murder”.

On key eyewitnesses turning hostile, she alleged that the State Government intimidated them, as they are government servants after all.

Accusing the BJP of influencing the process of prosecution in the case, Jamuna Devi later alleged before reporters, “The manner in which the witnesses were turning hostile shows that they are being pressurised to change their stand”.

Alleging there had been deterioration in the state’s law and order situation, she demanded imposition of President’s Rule in the State.